Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1887-12-23


about the house that man and his wife live
\ in; have shown you, not by my own assertion
| but by the statements OF the only experts in
/ the city-the realestate men, who for years
have handled from 5000 to 1900 houses-l have
shown you, say, that where twenty suffered
ton that don't prohibit. What would we have
with prohibition that did prohibit?
Let me so one step farther. When You talk
| first about a house that a man lives in. you got
right at him. have finished with that.
The next stop is to get our employers and ask
Weir eestmony w., went to MI Boyd OF VAN
had ten or fifteen garnshInents at O time to an
swer, now have none.
Inc garnishment, next to the distress war
rant, is the most Ubiquitous torn OF debt col
lection. 1t means that the law lays its hand
on man g wages and holds them in its grasp,
though his little children may Chamber about
his knees and cry for bread Now. where
there were twenty necessary then. there il one
now.
Mr. Boyd is Prohibitionist let me give you
| Grant Wilkins. He is man of profound con-
victions. You can cut him up into postage
stamps and he would not deny thing he
most violent, il that word may be used of the
Observation-Disclosures He said: Il have told
them l was not going to attend their Anti
meetings that did not intend to have anything
to do with it this time came to that conclu-
sion simply because work 22D men, and see
what Prohibition has dono for them, and l be-
lieve my duty requires should let it alone. My
foreman goes to their homes and sees them;
they live better their homes are bettcr, they
have shoes where they were shoeless and they
have plenty to eat where they formerly barely
lived. have had thirty garnshments Mt once
in my shop, nnd I have been running seven
months, and have not answered one single
Tint is the first time i'll II long and pleasant
friendship that ! have known Grant to &c
knowledge he was wrong could absolutely
weary you with testimony like that sCries OF
$50 on!"I
There is q mani caunot give his name
Col. Maddox knows him.. He is member of
H. rDh q
the largest manufacturers in this city, and, as
q rule, his associates are against Prohibition.
He went into Col. Maddoxs Office. and Col.
Maddox slapped him on the shoulder and said:
Hello, Anti"
NO, sir; not much.
You are printed that way said Col. Mad
ITS wrong, he said.
What changed him? The marked and UNI
He said:
"My wife and I rode out on Decatur street the
other day looked at the street and the i'm
dear. am Prohibitionist from this time for
ward" He was converted against his convic-
tons.
Mr.. Grady turned and caught sight Of Judge
Hillyer whose face was beanipg. and having
occasion to ask the Judge a question, said: BY
the way, doesn't the Judge look happy to-
night?" Whereof the audience cheered hearth
~, and the Judge luugaed and looked happier
than before.
Mr.. Riordan was m Auti-Prohibtionist in the
by the way, Col Mnddoxs Office seems to be u
sort of place for them to como. Mr. Riordan
says: II was an Anti Prohibitionst on princi-
plea personal liberty man, I suppose"Dnt
l work from sixty to Il hundred men, and have
seen q change that an honest man dare
not Disregard, and ON for prohibition.
Ladies and gentlemen, how Gun Won answer
such rs that? am not u profound lawyer.
don't know how much personal liberty l have
sot; Sometimes ! wish | had more looking
with smile at Mrs. Grady. who sut in the au-
diencek That is purely u personal matter to
which need not allude further don't
want any profound knowledge of law that
appeal to mel
Col. Maddox himself did not vote in the last
election until the last moment. He believed
prohibition imprecticable and visionary.
he might have had the personal liberty touch.
He WAS not going to vote, and his wife said
and the wife is nearly always the best half OF
the two, and is i'll this case-his wife said MY
dear, You vote to-day; We have boy" He
voted under protest, but he did not believe in
tit was ew-fangled. Six months afterwa ards
town had gone to ruin. But to-day he is wise
and intelligent man. and he has looked about
MN mn, ana heard what people say anh seen the
than she ever felt before, and he is a dyed-in-
| the-wool Prohibltionist.
| Mr.. Rucker was the same way, and is ready
| to work night and day for prohibition.
| Do you know J. c. Allen? Those who do not
are behind. He was an anti-Prohbitionist
He was SO strong IN anti Prohibitionist that lie
would not let his brother-in-la w-not his moth
er.in-law-talk to him on the subject He was
| rnbid. He did not want to discuss it, He had
| little dry goods store next to u saloon. Pro-
hibiton was voted in. and he has prospered
since i'll spite of himself, which reminds me of
distinguished Frenchman who WAS kicked
upstairs. The saloon was vacated, owing to
| circumstances over which the owner had no
\ control. 1t did not look we'll vacant, aud Mr..
Allen rented it; and where the OLD red eye used
to stand he put calico, and to-day he is doing a
splendid business, and people who used to go
there to buy their body's failing and their soul S
dnnnation, 80 there to buy ribbons and dress
es for their wives and little ones, as good men
ought to do Seeing all this said how can
you be al nnti?" and he snys Il uint; l have
changed. and am as dry as Il powder horn"
On Decatur street there were twenty three
bar-roonls where there are now four wine-rooms
| in what you might call tho last extremites. All
except one are occupied by grocers dry goods
| stores, boot and shoe shops, or by some sort of
| business that builds UP man III place of n
traffic that tears him down. Where is the par
| alysis OF business? -Four saloons and nineteen
| stores doing business i'll place OF twenty-tLr
| bar rooms.
l have told you in getting evidence of i'm
| provement or deterioration i'll a city that you
must go to the working classes. Especially is
this true Of Atlanta, because this s the third city
in the United States in the proportion of workers
to population Lawrence Mnss., leads with 81
| per cent of her population wuge-eLrners. Lowell
| follows with 4S per cent, and Atlanta and Fall
River tic for third place with a per cent.
| Now here is a class of people representing in
the workers OF our number AZ per cent. of the
entire population. Add the women nnd chill
| uren VINO 90 not work, ana we see this class
represents 66 or 10 per cent. of our population
| If I have shown that this class is benefited in
an unspeakable manner by the untried expert
ment of Prohibition. is it not our duty to con-
tinue this experiment, that the greatest good
may come to the, greatest number?
There is just one thing further. What harm
has it done? If it has done harm, let US see
what They said we were going to be ruined
that bats and owls would fly in and out, and the
real-estate men have the renting Of nine out of
ten houses that we're rented. They testify
without break, absolutely without u break,
| that they have fewer houses on their lists than
| they have ever had since they have been in
| business. Two OF them have advertised in the
| last few days for 100 houses, and to-day Mr.
Tally told ma that he actually left his Office be-
| cnuse he was bored by people who wanted to
| get somewhere to live in this town.
| Mir. Scott told me that he could put tenants
| in 500 houses in thirty days from tomorrow.
| They tell us we have lost in populations. There
| are just rs many houses in Atlanta today and
more aud they are I'LL full. Well, if the popu-
| lation has decreased, who fills them? Perhaps
| they are occupied by shades of Lincoln and
Jefferson and Monroe!
There are S2J more children in attendance ut
| the schools this year thnn last. How do you
account for that? Laughter 1t has been two
| years since prohibition WIS adopted, and there
| are 1923 more children in the schools That
means one of two things, and you can take
other horn of the dilemma: either there are
more people here. or there more people